Digital media content such as audio, video, and images may be consumed by a user on a variety of devices such as personal computers, personal digital assistants, portable digital media players, gaming consoles, mobile telephones, and the like. Digital media content is typically acquired by a personal computer accessing a digital media service via subscription or pay-as-you-go service models, and then transferred to a portable media device for consumption by the user. The portable media device does not have the standalone ability to access subscription services (e.g., update subscription licenses, update playlists), obtain new content, and/or generally interact with the digital media service. For subscription services, the lack of flexibility may interrupt access to the digital media service (e.g., since monthly licenses are only renewed during a certain period each month). If the user does not connect back to the digital media service during this particular period, the subscription content on the portable media device stops working.
Further, with existing digital media services, it is not possible for third parties to transfer promotional content onto a user's media device. For example, for the user to listen on the user's media device to a compact disc (CD) offered for sale at a local coffee shop, the user has to purchase the CD, take it home to a personal computer, copy the contents of the CD to the personal computer, and then transfer the CD contents from the personal computer to the media device. In addition, while at the local coffee shop, the user has no way to access additional third party services such as photo printing. In this example, the user has to copy the photographs from media device to a CD or a flash memory device for transit to a photo store to print out the pictures.